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c o M m: E N T s 



ON' THE 



POLICY INAUGimATED 



Wxt$\Atni, 



LETTER AND TWO SPEECHES, 



By Montgomery Blair, 

POSTMASTEK-GENERAL. 



NEW YORK: 
HALL, CLAYTON & MEDOLE, PRINTERS, 

46 Tine Steeet. 

1863. 



COMMEISTTS 



ON THE 



POLICY INAUGURATED 



BY THB 



Wxt^i&tni, 



IN A 



LETTER AND T¥0 SPEECHES, 



By Montgomery Blair, 

POSTMASTER-GENEBAL. 



NEW YORK: 
HALL, CLAYTON & MEDOLE, PRINTERS, 

46 Pine Stbeet. 

1863. 



.3 



LETTER 

TO TOK 

MEETING HELD AT THE COOPER INSTITUTE, 

NEW YORK, MARCH 6, 1862. 



Washington, District of Columbia, March 2, 1863. 

Gentlemen — I have the honor to acknowledge your favor of yesterday, 
invitina: me to attend a meeting of the citizens of New York, at the 
Cooper Institute, on the 6th instant, and requesting- my views on the 
subject of the call. I shall not be able to attend the meeting, nor have I 
the'leisure to write out my views upon the subject with the care demanded 
by the nature of it, but I will oft'er some thoughts for your consideration. 

I do not concnr in the proposition that certain States have been "re- 
cently overturned and wholly subverted as members of the Federal 
Union,'' upon which the call is based. This is, in substance, what tlie ' 
confederates themselves claim; and the fact that secession is maintained 
by the authors of this call, for a different purpose, does not make it more 
constitutional, or prevent them from being actual aiders and abettors of 
the confederates. 

No one who knows my political career will suspect that my condemna- 
tion of this doctrine is influenced by any indisposition to put an end to 
slavery. I have left no opportunity uuimproved to strike at it, and have 
never been restrained from doing so by personal considerations. But I 
have never believed that the abolition of slavery, or any other great 
reform, could or ought to be effected, except by lawful and constitutional 
modes. The people have never sanctioned, and never will sanction any 
other; and the friends of a cause will especially avoid all questionable grounds 
when, as in the present instance, nothing else can long postpone their success. 

There are two distinct interests in slavery: the political and property 
interests, held by distinct classes. The rebellion originated with the 
political class. The property class, which generally belonged to the Whig 
organization, had lost no properly in the region where the rebellion broke 
out, and were prosperous. It was the Democratic organization, which 
did not represent the slaveholders as a crass, which hatched the rebellion. 
Their defeat in the late politiciil struggle, and in the present rebellion, 
extinguishes at once and forever the political interest of slavery. The 



election of Mr. Lincoln put an end to the hopes of Jeff. Davis, Wise, el id 
omne genus, for the Presidency of the Union, and hence the rebellion. It 
extin,<;nished slavery as a power to control the Federal Government, and 
it was the capacity of slavery to subserve this purpose alone which has 
given it vitality, for morally and economically it is indefensible. With the 
extinction of its political power, there is no motive to induce any politician 
to u])hold it. No man ever defended such an institution except for pay, 
anil nothing short of the power of the Government could provide sufficient 
gratilicalion to ambition to pay for such service ; and therefore Mr, 
Toombs said, v/ith perfect truth, that tlie institution could only be main- 
tained in the Union by the possession of the Government. That has 
been wrested from it, and the pay is on the side of justice and truth. 
Can any man who respects popular intelligence think it necessary, with 
such advantages on the side of justice and truth, to violate the great 
charter of our liberties to insure their triumph? Such an act, in my judg- 
meni, so far from advancing the cause in whose name it is performed, 
would surely be disastrous, and result in bringing our opponents into 
power in the name of the Constitution. 

It is not merely a question of constitutional law or slavery with which 
we have to deal in "securing permanent peace." The problem before us 
is the practical one of dealing with the relations of masses of two different 
races in the same community. T^he calamities now upon us h;ive been 
brought about, as I have already said, not by the grievances of the class 
claiming property in slaves, but by the jealousy of caste awakened by the 

r secessionists in the non-slaveholders. 
In considering the means of securing the peace of the country licroafter, 
it is, therefore, this jealousy of race which is chiefly to be considered. 
Emancipation alone would not remove it. It was by proclaiming to the 
laboring whites, who fill the armies of rebellion, that the election of Mr. 
Lincoln involved emancipation, equality of the negroes with tlium, and 
consequently amalgamation, that their jealousy was stimulated Ld the 
fighting point. tVor is this jealousy the fruit of mere ignorance and bad 
passion, as some suppose, or confined to the white people of the South. 
On the contrary, it belongs to all races, and, like all po[)ular instincts, 
proL-ceds from the highest wisdom. It is, in fact, the instinct of self-pres- 

. ervation which revolts at hybridism. 

V— Kor does this instinct militate against the natural law, that all men are 
created equal, if another law of nature, equally obvious, is obeyed. We 
have but to restore the subject race to the same, or to a region similar to 
that from which it was brought by violence, to make it operative ; and 
such a separation of races was the condition w;hich the immortal author of 
the Declaration himself declared to be iudis()eusab]e to give it practical 
effect. A theorist, not living in a community where diverse races are 
brought in contact in masses, may stifle the voice of nature in his own 
bosom, and from a determination to live up to a mistaken view of the 
doctrine, go so far as to extend social intercourse to individuals of the 
subject race. But few even of such persons would pursue their theories so 
far as amalgamation and other legitimate consequences of their logic. In- 
deed, for the most part, such persons in our country, like the leading spirits 
ia Exeter Hall, are so far removed, by their circumstances, from any prac- 



tical equality with working people of any race, that tlicy liave little 
sympathy fur tlieni, and nothing to apprehend for themselves from the 
theory of etiiiality. Kot so with the white working man in a community 
where there are many negroes. In such circnmstanees, the distinction of 
caste is the only protection of the race from hybridism and consequent 
extinction. 

Tliat tliis jealousy of caste is the instinct of the highest wisdom, and is 
fraught with the greatest good, is ahniidantly attested l)y its effects on our 
own race, in which it is stronger than in any other. We conquer and 
hold our con((uest by it. 

The difficult question with which we have to deal is, then, the question 
of race, and I do not think it is disposed of, or that our difficulties will i)e 
lessened by emancipation by Congress, even if such an act was constitu- 
tional. It would certainly add to the exasperation of the non-slaveholding 
whites of the South, and might unite them against the Government, and, 
if so, I hey would be unconquerable. As matters stand, we can put down 
the reiiellion, because the people of the natural strongholds of the southern 
couutry are with us. It is chiefly in the low lands accessible from the 
ocean and navigable rivers and bays that treason is rampant. The moun- 
tain fastnesses, where alone a guerrilla war can be sustained, are now held 
by Union men, and they are more numerous and more robust, intelligent, 
and independent than the rebels. It is chiefly the more degraded class of 
non-slaveholders, who live in the midst of slavery, who are now engaiicd 
against the Government. But the non-slaveholders of the mountain and 
high land regions, while for the Union, are not free from the jealousy of 
caste, and the policy I object to would, if adopted, I apprehend, array 
them against us. Nor would we succeed in our oliject if they were finally 
subdued and exterminated, if we left the negroes on the soil ; for other 
whites would take the couutry, and hold it against the negroes, and re- 
duce them again to slavery, or exterminate them. 

I am morally certain, indeed, that to free the slaves of the South, with- 
out removing them, would I'esult in the massacre of them. A general 
massacre was on the eve of taking place in the State of Tennessee in 1856, 
upon a rising of some of them on the Cumberland ; and I have been as- 
sured by Hon. Andrew Johnson, who was then Governor of the State, that 
nothing but his prompt calling out of the militia prevented it. 

But this antagonism of race, which has led to our present calamities, 
and might lead to yet greater, if it continues to be ignored, will deliver 
us from slavery in the easiest, speediest, and best manner, if we recog- 
nize it as it is — the real cause of trouble, and invincible, and deal with it 
rationally. 

We have but to propose to let the white race have the lands intended 
for them by the Creator, to turn the fierce spirit aroused by the secession- 
ists to destroy the Union to the support of it, and at the same time to 
break up theslave system, by which the most fertile lands of the temperate 
zone are monopolized and wasted. That is the result which the logic of 
the census shows is being worked out, and which no political manage- 
ment can prevent being worked out. The essence of the contest is, 
whether the white race shall have these lands, or whether they shall be 
held by the black race, in the name of a few whites. The blacks could 



6 

never hold tbem as their owu, for we have seen how quickly that race has 
disappeared when emancipated. Experience proves, what might have 
been inferred from their history, that it has not maiutainad and cannot 
maintain itself in the temperate zone, in contact and in competition with 
the race to which that region belongs. It is only when dependent that 
it can exist there. But this servile relation is mischievous, and the com- 
munity so constituted does not flourish and keep pace with the spirit of 
the age. It has scarcely the claim to the immense area of land it occupies 
which the aborigines had ; for though the Indians occupied larger space, 
with fewer inhabitants, they did not waste the land as the slave system 
does. No political management or sentimentalism can prevent the natural 
resolution of such a system, in the end, any more than «uch means could 
avail to preserve the Indian possession and dominion. 

I'hi' rebellion, like the Indian outbreaks, is but a vain attempt to stem 
the tiiie of (tivilizatioti and progress. The treachery, falsehood, and cru- 
elty ]'cr|)etrated to maintain negro possession, scarcely less than that of 
the savages, marks the real nature of the contest. Nevertheless, I believe 
it might have been averted if we had adopted Mr. Jefferson's counsels, 
and made p.rovision for the separation of the races, provided suitable 
homes for the blacks, as we have for the-Indians. It is essential still, in 
order to abridge the conflict of arms, and to fraternize the people when 
that is past, to follow Mr. Jeflerson's advice. 

This most benevolent and sagacious statesman predicted all the evils 
which it has been our misfortune to witness, unless we should avert them 
by this, the only means which, after the most anxious thought, he could 
suggest. No statesman of our day has given the subject so much thought 
as he did, or possesses the knowledge or ability tp treat it so wisely. Let 
us, then, listen to his counsels. By doing so we shall establish a frater- 
nity among the workingmen of the Avhite race throughout the Union, 
which has never existed, and give real freedom to the black race, which 
cannot otherwise exist. Nor is it necessary to the restoration of harmony 
and prosperity to the Union that this policy should be actually and com- 
pletely put in force. It is only necessary that it sliould be ado])ted by the 
Government, and that it be made known to the people that it is adopted, 
to extinguish hostility in the hearts of the masses of the South towards 
the people of the North, and secure their co-operation in putting an end 
to slavery. No greater mistake was ever made than in supposing that the 
masses of the people of the South favor slavery. I have already stated 
that they did not take up arms to defend it, and explained the real motives 
of their action. The fact that they oppose emancipation in their midst is 
the only foundation for the contrary opinion. But the masses of the North 
are equally opposed to it, if the four millions of slaves are to be trans- 
ported to their midst. The prohibitory laws against their coming, existing 
in all the States subject to such invasion, prove this. On the other hand, 
the intense hostility which is universally known to be felt by tlie non- 
slaveholders of the South towards all negroes expresses their real hos- 
tility to slavery, and it is the natural form of expression under the 
circumstances. 

It needs, therefore, but the assurance which would be given by provid- 
ing homes for the blacks elsewhere, that they are to be regarded as 



sojourners when emancipated, as, in point of fact, they arc antl ever will 
be, to insure the co-operation of tlie uon-slaveholders in their emancipation. 
Nor would they require immediate, universal, or involuntary transporta- 
tion, or that any injustice whatever be done to the blacks. The more 
enterprising would soon emigrate, and multitudes of less energy would 
follow, if such success attended the pioneers as the care with which 
the Government should foster so important an object would doubtless in- 
sure ; and with such facilities, it would require but few generations to put 
the temperate regions of America in the exclusive occupation of the white 
race, and remove the only obstacle to a perpetual union of the States. 

With great respect, I am your obedient servant, 

M. BLAIR. 

To the CoMmTTKE of Invitation, &c. 



SPEECH 

AT THB 

MEETING HELD AT CLEVELAND 

MAY 20, 1863. 



FELLOw-CiTizENg — My heart responds warmly to the feeling which in- 
duces your kind reception. I could not forego the opportunity offered by 
the invitation to be present on this occasion to meet so many earnest men 
in the cause of our country, and unite in your efforts to carry on the strug- 
gle and crown it with success. 

The reaction against free Government in the United States and in this 
age, bears upon its front the marks of insanity. The father of the con- 
spiracy, of wliich the convulsion which now fills the country with suffering 
and dismay is the offspring, wore on his face, as was remarked by many 
observers, when his last words and dying imprecations against the princi- 
ples of our Constitution were read in the Senate, the ghastly aspect of a 
monomaniac. His conspiracy, prolonged through a thirty years' gestation, 
had even then a vitality to make itself painfully felt, and now the mon- 
strous birth is stamped with his phrensied features. 

But neither the mysterious workings of Oath-bound societies, nor the 
public agitation contrived by intrigue, in Congress, in State Legislatures 
and election canvasses, to engender partisan fury, prepared the country to 
expect and meet the shock it has received. The progress of the Govern- 
ment had been so easy, prosperous, and glorious ; it had attained such 
high rank with States of greatest strength and renown, that scarcely any 
sound mind supposed it possible that an assassin attempt would be made 
to close its career by a sudden blow, as if its life were as frail as that of an 
individual. There is no parallel in the history of the world of a similar 
assault on a vast, beneficent, beloved, popular Government, without even 
an alleged act of oppression on its part to provoke it, and whilst it was 
actually administered and its advantages enjoyed by the very men who 
aimed the stroke for its destruction. 

But whilst prosperity made us insensible to the danger, the wise and 
patriotic men who founded the Government, saw in slavery a mine by 
which phrensy and selfish ambition might lay their work in ruin. The slav- 
ery of one race they felt was not compatible with the freedom of another. 
They hoped the superior race, influenced by the benign tendencies of the 



9 

Government they nianagi'd and enjoyed, would ultimutely extend the Ulcss- 
in^ of liberty to a dependent people, rind effi'ediidly remove tin.'ir (lisal)ili- 
ties on a new scene of usefnl and independent exertion. Tle'se considera- 
tions induced tlie sashes, on fonndinji: the llepiil)lie, not to dislurli tliat poi- 
sonous element wliicli tliey believed tlie viji^or of tiie Cons! itnl ion would 
work out of the system in time. Tliey lived to see their fond hopes proved 
delnsioiis. 'LMie noxious plant of barbarous African {irowth, taking 
root in the accumnlations of avarice, worked by the energy of a ^reat race, 
outstripped all the sweet shoots of hnmanizing culture jiivcn to our Constitu- 
tion by ihe benevolent philosophy of our forefathers. In plain Iriitii, slavery 
haspro{iagated in its region, in pi'odigious strength, nil that is evil in the na- 
ture of oiir countrymen, and stilled all the virtues in which our glorious 
Government had its origin. Mow strikingly thi.s is ilenionstrated by the 
fact, that whilst tb.ere was not a man in the rfouth, who conlriliuted to es- 
tablish the free institntioiis among us, who did not denounce slavery as a 
curse from which the country must somehow Ite redeemed, now there is not 
one of that slave-breeding and governing class who doe.s not procluim it as 
the all-essential blessing for which life itself must l)e saeriliceil. 

The process by which this melancholy change hns been aecomplished is 
illustrated by the drunkard's career. This uidiappy ehiss of reprobates 
once felt that decency, sobriety, industry and purity were the true sources 
of happiness. But long indulgence in intoxicating draughts renders exist- 
ence a burden unless stimulated into extravagant feeling ; wild hilarity or 
sensual indolence then become their only good. Negro slavery is that 
black opium drug in the South which excites it into delirious phrensy or 
sinks it into that sad lethargy, both alike fatal to its prosperity. It pam- 
pers every vice and impairs every virtue. 

And can a State prosper under a system working such demoralization? 
The picture now presented in the laud of slaves tells the suae :?tory which 
is to be found in the annals of every slave emi)ire. All Asia has been 
corrupted by slavery. Africa, its birtb-phice, has ever been a desert. 
The glorious ancient republics perished unci* r its inflnence, after reaching 
the highest point of civilization l)y the hardy virtues of a free people, and 
modern Europe only redeemed herself from the common fate by the ex- 
tinction of the feudal system that originated serfdoai. 

Reverence for the hopeful idea of our fathers that the inherent virtue 
of the Constitution would extinguish slavery induced all who felt that its 
permanence would be destructive, to acquiesce in a passive resistance to 
its extension, although that resistance had proved unavailing to its first 
encroachments west of the Mississippi. It was hoped that the passion for 
expansion would be allayed by the surrender of Missouri and the acquisi- 
tion of Texas, and that the compromise line established in 1820 and re- 
approved in 1850 as the northern boundary of slavery would be respected. 
But having secured the President, both branches of Congress and the 
Supreme Court, the slave power resolved to bretik all compacts and strike 
for the empire of the continent. Kansas was tid<en fiy force and a slave 
government was designed to i)e established by fia\id, and ll)e Supreme 
Court affirmed a principle in the Dred Scott case which carried it all over 
our country. Slavery, the Court said, was a property which Wiis held 
under the Constitution of the United States, and for that reason could not 



10 

be excluded from the Territories by their lawful Grovernment. The reason- 
ing applies to the States as well as to the Territories, for the Constitution 
of the United States is equally paramount in both. Their fillibusters or 
pirates havin<>; failed in their attempt to seize Cuba and Central America, 
they proposed to take these countries openly by the power of the Govern- 
ment. Such were the means adopted prior to the war to make the Con- 
stitution of the United States what that of the Confederacy now is, an 
instrument to increase, diffuse and perpetuate slavery and make it a con- 
tinental institution ; but the oligarchy saw by the election of Lincoln that 
the peaceful action of the ballot-box would reverse these wrongs, and pre- 
vent future aggressions either to extend slavery further South or to main- 
tain it in the regions subjected by the Supreme Court. . They were pre- 
pared for this contingency, and flew to arms to assert their doctrine that 
slavery was the best foundation for the Government, and have undertaken, 
like Mahomet, the propagation of their faith and institutions by the 
sword. 

Hence it was in vain that Mr. Crittenden's appeasing resolutions were 
passed — in vain that an amendment to the Constitution declaring slavery 
to be irrevocably established unless abolished by the States within which 
it existed — no sacrifice, not even that of the Constitution, to give addi- 
tional guarantees to slavery where it existed, could save the country from 
war, for by that means alone it was now evident could slavery be made 
the dominant principle in the New World. It is that domination for which 
they are contending. Independence is sought only as a means of effecting 
that object. Once possessed by that means of the control of the Missis- 
sippi, they think that the Northwest would adopt the Confederate Con- 
stitution and sacrifice the freedom of the negroes to secure the freedom of 
the Mississippi, and that the Middle States, and even New England, would 
not be slow to follow suit. 

And when we remember how far on the mere menace of disunion the 
country acquiesced in that Dred Scott doctrine which alone distinguishes 
the rebel constitution from our own, can we doubt that if the rel)ellion 
is successful, we will yield that point to restore the Union ? Robert 
Toombs will yet call the roll of his slaves on Bunker Hill unless we con- 
quer. The controversy therefore is between slavery and the Government. 

The President, to whom the defence of the Government and the com- 
mand of its armies belong, has labored to avert the dangers with which 
we are encompassed by various measures in aid of the armed forces he has 
sent to the field. He would save the Union with or without slavery — 
would save it in any way, at whatever cost. The Union in peace under 
the Constitution was again and again his overture. If there could be no 
assurance of this with rebels bent on subverting the republic to establish 
an oligarchy of slaveholders, then to the loyal friends of free government 
in the South he tendered emancipation with compensation and a deliver- 
ance by colonization from a war of races which could only end in the 
extermination of the negro race or amalgamation with it. This failing, 
after nearly two years of expostulation and forbearance to exert to the 
utmost the military power conferred on him under the Constitution, the 
President felt himself constrained to issue that Proclamation of freedom 
to the slaves, who were in every sense the enemy's sinews of war. Some 



11 

of them were found rii2;litiii,i!; in their ranks — multitudes in oroctiiip; and 
defending their fortilications — the greater mass in the fichls at home, 
enabling their conscription to drag every able-bodied white man into the 
field of battle against the Government, who, when there, are literally fed 
and paid by the products of that slave labor, to secure and extend which 
was the pronounced object of the war. 

This proclamation of tlic President was a reluctant advance, because, 
however necessary, it proceeded solely from himself, as being ahuie iiwestcd 
by the Constitution with the direction of the military power of the nation, 
and because in deciding on the necessity of its application in the way which 
the exigency before him seemed to demand, he jilaced the Government in 
a position from which there was no retreat. Tlie ]iroclamali(iii to the slaves 
to weaken the enemy commits the nation irrevocably to make good the 
pledge by the utmost exhibition of its power. It not only creates an obli- 
gation to the bondsmen whose action it is meant to control, but it is an 
implied p/edge of honor to the foreign powers whose conduct it is designed 
to influence. That measure which, as Commander-inCiiief, the President 
rightfully adopted under the Constitution and in accordance with national, 
law to obtain the co-operation of a whole race of people, and which in- 
volves both life and freedom in its results, when proclaimed, is now beyond 
revocation by either the civil or military authority of the nation. The 
people once slaves in the rebel States can never again be recognized as 
such by the United States. No judicial decision — no legislative action. 
State or national, can be admitted to re-enslave a people who are associ- 
ated with our own destinies in this war of defence to save the Government, 
and whose manumission was deemed essential to the restoration and pres- 
ervation of the Union and to its permanent peace. 

The first movement in this grand system of emancipation has been 
already made under the orders o"f the President. It is seen in the segre- 
gations of the blacks from their masters and massing them at advantage- 
ous positions on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and tlie shores of the Mis- 
sissippi as they are drawn from the interior. Here they are to be brought 
within works which they will be taught to construct and defend, and have 
the contiguous land assigned to them during the contiimance of the war to 
contribute to their sustenance. Under proper discipline they will here 
learn much to fit them for self-government as an independent people, as- 
sociated with a kindred race that" now invites them to a congenial climate 
and a soil rich in all the productions best suited to repay in commerce the 
nations of more advanced civilization, for the protection and assistance 
they may have given them in their new homes with the governments into 
which they are admitted. 

. Meanwhile, during the war, the fortified places these freed men may 
hold on the Mississippi, the sea-coasts and elsewhere under their control, and 
with the support of portions of our armies, will render the river and coast 
commerce free to us, and exclude it from the enemy. When the war ends 
large numbers of the bondsmen, which it will have liberated, may still be 
retained temporarily, and may be employed under wages in executing the 
plans for national defen("e, proposed by the Military Committee of tlie last 
House of Representatives, in the conversion of the intra-canal navigation 
along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, now to a considerable extent com- 



12 

pleted for small boats, into a ship canal from New Orleans to New York, 
and in enlarging the canal now uniting the Lakes and the Mississippi. If 
the Erie Canal shall also be enlarged, the whole region of the Mississippi 
and the Atlantic will be insulated and invnlnerable. The kindred 
measure — the Pacific Railroad — designed to carry the military power of 
the Republic to the defence of our Pacific possessions, if ever invaded, will 
be the work of European emigrants of our own blood, lured by the rich 
domain it penetrates, and which the nation presents as an inheritance to 
those who shall engage in its construction. 

But the mission of the Afric-Americau race will not be concluded in the 
region which has been its house of bondage. Its destined glory as a re- 
deemed, a free and civilized race is to be consummated in the American 
tropics. They will there infuse vigor, unity, and enterprise, with aspira- 
tions to emulate the progressive genius of the country of their birth. They 
will brcijk liie fetters of Cuba, and make it excel the fabled llesperides 
under Ciis'-Atlautic influences, and the favor of European nations inter- 
ested in the commerce of tlie Indies of the West, far riclier than those of 
the Orient. Aided with the capital and intelligence of the great commer- 
cial powers, ihvyt will make the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic flow 
through Cciitral America, and they will bring their oppressed brethren 
from the Sahara of Africa to a Canaan in the New World. 

I feel that I have given a very imperfect outline of the scheme of seces- 
sion, of the manner in which your Chief Magistrate has met the emergency, 
and how he proposes to make the evils which have befallen us the sources 
of blessing to our posterity and to mankind. 

It is inadmissible an(] unnecessary here to do more than glance at these 
great themes. Acute observers, and some who have skill in dealing with 
details, have found much to complain of iu the President's Administration. 
Unquestionably many errors have been committed — errors not only no- 
ticeable to microscopic vision, but to enlarged minds. But, regarded as a 
v/hole, I think he may safely ask the verdict of his cotemporaries and of 
posterity upon his patriotism and comprehensive wisdom. 



SPEECH 

AT TIIH 

UlSriON MASS CONVENTION, 

CONCORD, N. n., JUNE 17, 1863. 



Fellow-Citizens — I thank you for this kind greeting. I have cherislied 
ties with New Hampshire, and for almost twent}'^ years have had such 
friendly intercourse with the people of the State, that such au assurance 
of their approval is peculiarly gratifying and encouraging. But I am 
sensible that it is not as one of the family, or because of any personal rela- 
tions with you, that you receive me so kindly to-day. It is because I am a 
member of your Government, and because you recognize in me a represent- 
ative of the National sentiment which now animates and always has aui- 
mated New Hampshire. In 111Q, in 1812, and in the present day of trial 
— the three great eras of national peril — no portions of our people have 
exhibited more devotion to the national cause than the people of New 
Hampshire, whether we refer to the manifestation of zeal iu the light, after 
the appeal was made to arms, or whether we refer to the moderation and 
wisdom of their political action, to the respect they exhibited for the 
just rights of the South, or the firmness displayed iu maintaining their own 
riglits — in every aspect iu which the conduct of this people can be regarded, 
in these great eras, it challenges the admiration of the friends of i)opular 
Government. No one can now recur to the political couQicts which pre- 
ceded the rebellion, and observe the part taken by the people of this State, 
without seeing that they had a clear insight into the nature of the contro- 
versy, and acted well their part, and have been steadfast throughout to the 
Union and Constitution, and to genuine Democratic principles. 

What was that controversy ? Was it really an effort on the part of the 
North to abolish slavery, and on the ])art of the South to defend their jirop- 
erty ? This would be a most superficial view of the subject. That would 
be the slavery question in the same sense as the regulation of the exchanges 
constituted the bank question. It needs but little political knowledge to 
discover that the real object of the parties controlling these institutions, 
the peculiar institution as well as the banking, was to make use of them as 
agencies to control the Government. To oppose this class government was 
the natural impulse of true democracy in both instances. 

When the nullifiers failed both to make themselves masters of the Gov- 
ernment or to break it up with the tariff question, because they could not 
nuite the South on that question. President Jackson foresaw that they 
would resort to the slave question, on which they could consolidate the 
South. He was alarmed, because he knew that slavery created a morbid 
Ben!-itivene?s which would enable the nullifiers to unite the South to demand 
the submission of the North ou the penalty of disunion. He strove to 



14 

baffle their design, denounced their abolition cry in advance, as a " 'pretext," 
and concurred with Col. Benton and other true Democrats in remonstrat- 
ing against their admission into the Democratic party. Twice have these 
wicked men attempted to execute the design so truly foresliadowed by the 
patriotic and prophetic heart of Jackson — first in 1850, after the defeat of 
1848, and now again on their defeat in 1860. 

But they succeeded for many years, by the use of the slavery question, 
in holding the power of the Government, and used it skillfully to per- 
petuate their rule. This fact was proclaimed by their Vice-President 
Stephens, in his speech in 1860, when he demonstrated at Augusta that it 
was a blunder for them to quit a Union whose government they had en- 
joyed so long, and might hereafter enjoy, despite of the temporary ouster. 
And Mr. Stephens was not the only chief who quitted reluctantly the theatre 
on which they had exercised a sway almost imperial for a generation. But 
they had fired the Southern heart, and nothing but blood or dominion 
could quench the flame. 

And yet there are men, and meu calling themselves Democrats, who 
think the people of the jVorth should not have rallied, even in 1860, to 
assert their equal right in the Government they had equally contributed 
to found, but from which they had been practically excluded from influ- 
encing for twenty years. Worse still, these men call themselves "Jackson 
men" whilst following the nuUifiers, Jackson's most savage enemies and 
revilers — suffering themselves to be duped by the cry of "abolition," 
which the Old Hero had denounced, in advance, as a '^ false pretext." 

But if we left out of view the fact that Jackson and Benton, and the 
true leaders of the Democratic party in the South, denounced this slavery 
agitation as a uuUifier's plot for dominion or disunion, and that their pre- 
tended quarrel with their abolition allies had proved a rich harvest for 
their ambition for many years, and wrought such exclusion of the people 
of the North from all share in the Government, as to forbid the idea of 
their favoring the discussion, except upon the assumption of their absolute 
stupidity, how can any intelligent and candid mind accuse the North of 
making the controversy in view of the repeal of the Missouri compromise 
and the Kansas outrage ? 

The conduct of the people, after the adoption of the compromise measures 
of 1850, shows beyond all controversy that they understood the operation of 
the slave discussion — recognized the law that they had no power over the 
subject, and the fact that it disfranchised them, and sought, both for their 
own interests and the general good, to avoid it. For this reason they 
scrupulously kept the faith on the compromise of 1850, though they had 
not liked the terms of it when it was adopted. But as a finality, and on 
a pledge of faith that it was a settlement of the slave question, they ad- 
hered to it. There were many able men, indeed, and among them your 
own Senator, Mr. Hale, who, distrusting the good faith of the Southern 
leaders, refused to pledge themselves to adhere to the compromise. But 
the people of the North generally, and of New Hampshire particularly, 
would tolerate no disturbance of that settlement. So strong was the feel- 
ing here, that Mr. Hale thought his career closed — I presume so, at least, 
as I understood he removed to New York to practice law — and I have no 
doubt he would now have been at the head of the profession in that city 



15 

if the nuUifiers had not rccallcMl him to the Senate by the repeal of the 
Missouri coniproniisc. 

So much for the past — I draw no uiifavoraMo au<^uries from it for the 
future. The self-reliance of tlie American peo|)le — the jj;rand feature whicli 
distinguishes them among nations — is visible throughout this contest, and 
remains unshaken to secure our power and freedom. Look over the earth 
and you will see an Emperor here, an autocrat there, an onmipotent par- 
liament representing an upper class, a hereditary King, the instrument of 
a regency of Courtiers with a mercenary army at their beck disposing of 
the lives and fortunes of the multitude, in utter contempt of their feelings 
and opinions. Here we have before us an exhibition of the spirit that 
pervades, animates, gives impulse to everything that touches the interest 
of an American citizen, from the highest to the lowest. Men of all jiarties 
are here — men of every religious sect — men of all conditions, all callings, 
all professions, and each of them contributes a share in creating the feel- 
ing and the public opinion which is to make or mar the welfare of a con- 
tinent now stricken by civil war. 

Among any other than the American people, such a wide-spread civil 
war — mustering more than a million of men in arms, would portend revo- 
lution. Is there a man in this vast crowd who apprehends that the Con- 
stitutions — State and National— left us by our fathers are to be changed ia 
letter or iu spirit, by this bloody struggle ? Is there one who expects the 
result to be the driving out of one President by bayonets, and the instal- 
lation of another — the breaking up of one forna of government, and con- 
struction of a new one — the periodical catastrophe iu revolutionary Mexico, 
or tlie permanent severance of our States and of the natural boundaries 
assigned by Providence to us as a nation ? No loyal man anticipates such 
a revolution from this rebellion — none but bad, ambitious men, who would 
8acri'.ice popular institutions, secured by the best goverr.ment known to the 
world, to selfish designs, countenance the idea. The heartless faction of 
oligarchs. North and South, who consider republican principles an al)omiu- 
ation, desire to convert this war, into which the government has been 
drawn in defence of its existence, into a revolutionary convulsion for its 
subversion. 

There are two knots of conspiring politicians, at opposite ends of the 
Union, that make slavery a fulcrum, on which they would play see-saw 
with the Government, and willingly break it iu the middle and demolish it 
to make experiments with the fractions in reconstructions suited to their 
designs, which are only known as ho.stile to the well-balanced constitu- 
tions inherited by our fathers. The Calhoun and Wendell Phillips Juntas 
have both sought the accomplishment of their adverse ends by a common 
means — the overthrow of the Constitution. Calhoun's school would de- 
stroy every free principle, because repugnant to the perpetuity and propa- 
gation of slavery universally as the only safe foundation of good govern- 
ment. Phillips' school would subject all our systems of goverinnentto 
the guillotine of revolutionary tribunals, because they recognize the exist- 
ence of different races among aa—oftvhile, red and black; because they re- 
pudiate the idea of equality and fraternity in regard to citizenship that 
tends to produce that amalgamation, personal and political, which would 
make our government oue of mongrel races, and because they authorize 



16 

legislation — State and National — which may exclude them from taking 
root in the soil and government of the country. 

The white man has extruded the Indian race from dominion on this con- 
tinent, its native-born aboriginal inheritor. The African was introduced 
on it, not as its owner or to give it law, but to be owned and receive law; 
and under this aspect the white man, as a conqueror, has accommodated 
the constitutions of the country to his own condition — that of the ruling 
race. The ground which Wendell Phillips and his followers take is not 
merely to alter the law and enfranchise the races held under it as inferior 
to that holding the dominion by right of conquest, but to abolish the con- 
stitutions which recognize that right as established, and admit to equal 
participation those races hitherto excluded as inferiors. 

The people who hold the sovereignty in the United States, equally ab- 
jure the Calhoun and Phillips doctrine, both looking to a radical revolu- 
tion to accomplish their opposing schemes. The platform of principles 
which put Mr. Lincoln at the head of the Government explicitly denounced 
both; and every State paper from the hand of the President referring to 
it, proclaims a policy at war with that of the partisans of Calhoun on the 
one hand, and of Phillips on the other. Providentially, the treason 
hatched under the incubation of Calhoun has destroyed the whole progeny 
of mischiefs by means of which he sought to work the overthrow of the 
Government. Rebellion to overthrow the Constitution compelled the ex- 
ertion of its war power, under which has fallen in the rebel States that 
local institution employed by the assailants of the national system for its 
ruin. The bondage which rendered the slaves subservient to this ptu'pose, 
is declared by the President's proclamation to be broken, and if the arms 
of the United States can maintain its authority, the servitude which the 
Constitution once made it a duty to tolerate, now becomes, by the fiat of 
its wa^' functionary, the malady that must be thrown off for self-preserva- 
tion. The life of the Constitution is now the death of slavery. The wea- 
pon used to destroy the Government is wrested from the hands of traitors, 
and is a forfeit. The slavery abolished under the proclamation is the 
rightful conquest as it is the salvation of our free institutions. It can 
never be restored but through tlieir subversion. Into this practical issue 
Calhoun^s State right doctrines resolve themselves. If the people of tlie 
United States constitute a nation — have a national Government, and can 
maintain it, his so-called State rights, exerted to destroy it, conclude in 
treason. 

To what better result do the abolition docti'ines of Wendell Phillips 
come ? Slavery is abolished, as I have shown, by the rebellion and its 
consequences — by the war, and the constitutional means accorded to the 
Government for its defence. The abolition of slavery does not content one 
class of anti-slavery men. The Wendell Phillips school, to arrive at the 
consummation of their wishes, demand the same sacrifice that Calhoun's 
proselytes make war to obtain — the abolition of the Constitution of the 
United States. They demand that the different races on this continent, 
marked by the very terms of the Constitution and the laws made under it 
as subordinate to the white race asserting full sovereignty over this coun- 
try, shall be elevated to equality with the race holding it by conquest, and 
whose Constitution and laws specially ordain its appropriation to tliem- 



17 

selves. This amalgamation in races is more than a revolntion in govcrii- 
raent. It is an attempt to make a fnndamental change in the laws of na- 
ture, and, by lilending different species of tlie human race, create a hyl)rid 
nation. Tiiis will prove to be an impossibility. The red, white, an<l black 
races have mingled very freely on this continent, Init the hybrids gradnally 
wear oat, while the old stock preserves its original type. The French, 
from the infancy of discovery on this continent, intermarried witli the 
Indian tribes — but where is the French tribe of Indians to be found ? 
They made the same experiment with the blacks in St. Domingo, and a 
mongrel race appeared for a time of various tints, but it is gradnally van- 
ishing. So the old Spanish blood that mi.xcd with that of tiie Indians, in 
Spanish America, has almost run out, and Indians and Spaniards are as 
incongruous with each other as in the beginning, and the fatal result of 
this attempted amalgamation is shown in the degradation of both races, 
and in the instability of their governments. 

If the history of the world, and the present aspect of both heniisi)heres, 
did not make manifest the absurdity of the proposed system of mixing the 
black and white races in the management of a common government, and 
blending the two colors to make a third, or rather a piebald people of all 
colors, the repugnance of caste which has grown up in this country, on the 
part of the white freeman to the black man, contrasted by his servile con- 
dition from his first appearance among us as strongly as by bis ebon skin 
and curled hair, certainly shows that nothing short of insanity could hope 
to reconcile the dominant, and, I might say, the domineering race, to such 
a conjunction. When the Northern free States have framed laws prohib- 
iting the colored freedman from obtaining a foothold on their soil, upon 
what terms can it be supposed the master race, in the slave States, would 
consent to associate with negroes made free by the hand of war ? They 
would see their State laws and their State rights, as they insist, set aside 
by the deprivation of their ownership in slaves. This would be just for- 
feiture. But while the free States of the North excluded the manumitted 
slaves from their soil, avowing the abhorrent feeling o{ caste as an insuper- 
able bar to the association on auy terras, much less of equality, how could 
it be asked of the Southern States that this excommunicated race, surren- 
derird by them as slaves, should be retained, nevertheless, among them, and 
admitted as equals and as partners in political power, in defiance of the 
Constitution of the United States, and the laws even of the Northern 
States, which brand them with the bad'ze of inferiority and political disab- 
ility? What would be the attitude of the Anglo-Saxon and the African 
toward each other in such relations produced by the triumph of the free 
States over the slave ? Would the white man of the South live to bear 
subjugation to such fellowship ? Would not the inextiuguishable memory 
of wrongs on one side, and of ailmitted mastery on the other, make patient 
acquiescence on either side impi>ssible ? All the bloodiest revolutions of 
ancient and modern times have been those broached by slaves against en- 
slavers. 

Our civil war, closing in the manumission of four million of slaves, to 
take equal rank with six million of enslavers, would be but the prelude to 
a servile war of extermination. Can any one doubt that the military skill 
and desperation of the master race would reduce the negroes again to sub- 



18 

jugation, unless the freemen of the North made common cause with them 
against their white brethren ? The bare statement of this complication 
makes it apparent that there can be no peace on this continent on tha 
basis of the ultra aI)olitionists who insist on the abolition of existing con- 
stitutions to establish negro amalgamation, liberty, fraternity and equality. 

/ Yet, I have long ago proclaimed myself unalterably the friend of the lib- 
erty, equality and fraternity of the African race, but not in this region, 
which is devoted, by constitutions, laws and fixed usages, to the liberty, 
equality and fraternity of the race of pale-faces. Such commingling of 
blood, of domestic intimacies, of social, civil and political interests, between 
the white and black castes is unnatural and fatal to the welfare of both, 
and, therefore, impossible. 
jL, The advocates of this hybrid policy know this, but they think the negro 
so essential to the selfish purposes of their political ambition, tl:at, like 
Calhoun, they are willing to make him, as well as those who hold him in 
durance, the victim of their policy. I advocate the President's plan of 
saving both, and ministering to their prosperity and to their elevation in 
their respective spheres to power and greatness as a people. 

This may be done by a gradual segregation of the two races, and as- 
signing to each the regions on this continent and adjacent isles congenial 

f— to their natures. The old Roman policy of spreading their institutions 
and influence abroad in the world, by providing homes for new people 
drawn into their service, and whom it was not politic and safe to settle in 
Italy, should be adopted in favor of the unhomogeneous dependent people 
of African descent whom this war will throw upon the hands of the 
Government as freedmen. Many of them will enlist in the army — multi- 
tudes will be employed on the waste lands of the Government in providing 
for their own subsistence. All should be drawn together in military camps 
on the Roman plan — put under the control of public officers, instructed in 
the business of self-government, self-defence, and self-support, and when 
employed in the public service, amply compensated. Thus, they would be 
in a state of probation while the Government would have opportunity to 
provide for their settlement in the suitable regions to which they are in- 
vited as colonists. When peace comes and this liberated multitude seek 
other employment than that servitude under former masters who would 
render it more intolerable than the slave system, .which, while it extorted 
labor without compensation, yet created such an interest in the bodies of 
the slaves that they were cared for on economical principles, tlie Govern- 
ment must necessarily become their patron. Placed in this relation, the 
Government must provide them compensated employment, until they are 

.ready to assume the character of an independent people. This might be 
done advantageously in the Southern States, by opening into ship canals 
those communications which the enterprise of individuals and the natural 
aqueducts from the Mississippi have to a great extent opened up from the 
great artery of our continent around the shores of the Gulf through the 
Hudson to the lakes. What a glorious result of the war for North and 
South, especially the latter, would be the completion of this bond of com- 
mercial brotherhood — this interception of the waters of all our rivers and . 
bays before they reach the Atlantic, and opening them up to each other 
out of the reach of the hostile navies that might endanger our commerce 



19 

or bring foreign power to tlic invasion of our lionics. The prcnt wall of 
China — the prodigious military liighways tlirongli wliicli Home niiin-ii licr 
cn)j)ire over Asia, Africa and Europe, were the works of populations, 
whose necessities jilaeed thera as a charge on the government. 

By such means the process of liberating four millions of bondfmen, and 
then preparing them to assume the attitude of a self-governing nation, 
might be made to secure to the United States forever their Union, their 
domestic peace and immunity from foreign invasion. 

Instead of the mutual benefits which the President's plan proposes to 
draw out of our present adversity, by making the Afric-American race a 
nation in a fruitful, congenial clime, protected in all their rights under the 
American flag, opening the way to people of our own race to fill their 
places, and putting an end to the anomalous character of our institutions 
which destroy our jieace, what do those ultra humanitarians ofier ? They 
profess so much philanthropy in the abstract, and such perfect impartiality 
in judging of human affairs, that they seem to think the millennium come, 
and invite the lion and lamb to lie down together. They would break up 
all constitutions, laws and usages, assuming that all antagonisms of in- 
terests, of prejudices, of passions, were at an end in a land of fetters 
and whips, of swords, guns and bayonets in the hands of six millions of 
incensed masters, and that four millions of their manumitted slaves might 
be safely trusted to their tender mercies. This is a practical illustration 
of the Wendell Phillips love for the down-trodden African ! 

But the Phillipeans probably do not expect the amalgamation, liberty, 
equality and fraternity theory to be acceptable to the present ruling 
class, but intend that the Northern white man, while rejecting it for him- 
self, shall enforce it on the Southern white man. Unfortunately for this 
scheme, the Northern soldier intends becoming a Southern white man himself, 
and he wants the lands he redeems from nullification for himself and his 
posterity, and as an inheritance for his race. 

The scheme is another birth of that monstrous philosophy which would 
have discarded the Slave States from the Union and delivered the negroes 
to perpetual bondage, on the pretence that the conscience of the North 
might no longer be burdened with responsibility for the crime of Slavery. 

All the propositions of the abolition faction which is warring on the 
President come to these conclusions: destruction of the Constitution, and 
of the white and black races, or incessant wars after the example of the 
Moors and Spaniards, until the expulsion of the former from Spain. AlP 
the early patriots of the South — Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, 
Jackson, Clay and others, were the advocates of emancipation and coloni-__, 
zation. The patriots of the North concurred in the design. Is the fac- 
tion now opposing it patriotic or philanthropic? are they not rather like 
Calhoun, working the negro question to accomplish schemes of selfish am- 
bition, and after his method making a balance of power party of a phalanx 
of deluded fanatics, keeping the Union and the public peace perpetually 
in danger, and seeking power in the Government through its distrac- 
tions ? 

The author of the Declaration of Independence and his associates de- 
clared equal rights impracticable in society constituted of masses of different 



• 20 

races.* De Tocqueville, the most profonnd writer of the Old World on 
American Institutions, predicts the extermination of the blacks, if it is 
attempted to confer such rights on them in the United States. It is ob- 
vious that an election would be but a mockery in a community wherein 
there could be no other than black and lohite parties. In such communi- 
ties reason and experience show that one or the other race must be the 
dominant race, and that Democracy is impossible. This is not less obvi- 
ous to the Phillips school than it is to the Calhoun school, who concur in 
opposing the policy of Mr. Jefferson, adopted by the President, intended 
to effectuate the design of our fathers to establish popular government. 
They concur in pressing here the antagonism of races, and only differ in 
looking to different races to give them power. The result of this antag- 
onism, so far as popular government is concerned, would be the same if 
either could succeed in their schemes, and yon would scarcely have much 
preference between being governed by Jeff. Davis, as the leader of the 
slave power, and Wendell Phillips, as the leader of the enfranchised blacks. 
But neither can succeed. Even the Calhoun scheme, matured through so 
many years of intrigue by men verted in public affairs, and attended with 
a temporary success, is a failure as a governing contrivance, though potent 
still to spread ruin widely through the land, and especially to desolate the 
homes of his deluded followers. The Philii|)S scheme is the dream of vis- 
ionaries wholly unskilled in government, and will bo a failure from the 
start. He may in turn make victims of the negroes, as Calhoun has of 
their masters. But I think not. They are not ambitious of ruling white 
meu,*and will, I believe, be contented to set up for themselves in some 
neighboring and congenial clime, on the plan of Jefferson and Lincoln. 
Here is the real issue with the President. Emancipation is a fixed fact. 
What next ? Shall we take Phillips for a guide, or Jefferson and Lin- 
coln? The people will, I am sure, answer wisely. 

* The colonization of our free blacks in the tropical regions of America was sug- 
gested by Mr. Jeiierson, ia his Notes ou Virginia. lu a letter addressed to Mr. Sparks, 
referring to it, he said: 

" The second object, and the most interesting to us, as coming home to our physical 
and moral characters, to our happiness and safety, is to provide an asylum, to which 
we can, by degrees, send the whole of that population (the negroes) from among us, 
and establish them under our patronage and protection, as a separate, free, and in- 
dependent people, in some country and climate friendly to human life and happiness." 

He urged the proposition at one time before the Virginia Legislature — speaking of 
it afterwards, he said : 

"It was, however, found that the public mind would not yet bear the proposition, 
nor will it even at this day; yet the day is not far distant when it must bear it and 
adopt it, or worse will follow. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate, 
than that these people (the negroes) are to be free; nor is it less certain that the two 
races, equally free, cannot live in the same Government. Nature, habit, opinion, 
have drawn indelible lines of distinction between them. It is still in our power to 
direct the process of emancipation and deportation, and in such slow degree as that the 
evil will wear otf insensibly, and in their place he pari passu filled up by free white 
laborers. If, on the contrary, it is left to force itself on, human nature must shudder 
at the prospect held up. We should in vain look for an example in the Spanish de- 
portation or deletion of the Moors." 







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